


A Key (By Any Other Name)

by SpasticBookworm



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21812734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpasticBookworm/pseuds/SpasticBookworm
Summary: Buck gave Eddie a key to his apartment but it doesn't mean anything, okay?
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 6
Kudos: 228





	A Key (By Any Other Name)

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted to my tumblr (no-anchovies-please)

The key doesn’t mean anything, okay?

It doesn’t.

He gave it to Eddie for emergencies, when his leg was still in the cast. 

(It used to be Ali’s key, but that’s not something he wants to talk about.)

He gave it to him over breakfast one morning, when Eddie had the day off and Chris decided he wanted to see Buck. They had pancakes, cause they’re Chris’s favorite food, at least currently, and because it’s the one thing Buck is good at making without fail.

He wasn’t sneaky about; he didn’t just slip it on the man’s keyring while he was in the restroom or anything.

He just handed to him after giving Chris his last slice of bacon when it looked like the kid wanted to sneak it off his plate anyway. 

Eddie may have given him a weird look, but Buck just waved it off. Honestly, it’s just for emergencies. Or you know, if he and Christopher just want to come over and hang out.  
Really, it was more for Buck, so he doesn’t have to get up and unlock the door for them whenever they stop by.

The smile he gets from Chris is worth the awkward feeling he gets when Eddie scrutinizes him.

But he still puts the key on his key ring.

So, the key doesn’t mean anything, except for how it does, but Buck isn’t ready to read more into his own actions. He’s more of a just do things and worry about it later kind of guy.

But apparently, it means a lot to Christopher. 

Because Chris makes himself at home whenever he and Eddie are over. Buck thinks there might be some of Chris’s things in his closet, which, he tries to justify, are also for emergencies. 

Kids can be messy, after all. At least, that’s what Buck reasons when he convinces Eddie to bring some extra things over. Not that it took much convincing, although that might have been because Christopher thought it was the best thing ever, having two homes.

Buck never had the heart to correct him; didn’t want to anyway. 

Only a few things of Eddie’s have migrated to his closet, but Buck thinks it’s more because in a pinch Eddie can wear Bucks shirts if need be, than because he’s not over enough for it to happen. 

(Eddie is usually over every time Chris is. Except for the one time Chris talked Carla into taking him to Bucks instead of home after school. Buck ended up taking an uber to bring him home towards the end of Eddie’s shift. They had mac and cheese with hot dogs for dinner, and Eddie instead Buck stay the night. The clothes he borrowed the next day are still hanging in his closet. Eddie hasn’t asked for them back yet.)

So his point is, Eddie has had a key to Bucks apartment for a while and it wasn’t a big deal. But that hasn’t stopped Maddie and now Chimney from giving him looks whenever they stop by. That part, at least, is all Eddie’s fault. Because Eddie just had to come over one day to bring Buck the pan of tamales his abuela made for him, and just had to let himself in. Only Buck had been out with Maddie. 

Eddie was just locking up Bucks apartment when they got off the elevator and wasn’t that an awkward hallway conversation. It was an even more awkward conversation when Maddie saw the note Isabel left on the tamales, informing him that she expects Buck to call her as soon as he finishes eating them so she knows when to have Eddie bring more food over. 

(But the tamales were worth it.)

Looks from his sister he’s used to. But Chimney? That just feels like a betrayal of the bro code or something. Or maybe the sibling code because seriously? She just had to tell Chimney that he gave Eddie a key?

He wouldn’t be surprised if the whole firehouse knew. But really. It’s just a key.

But anyway his point is that the key doesn’t mean anything. And if he tells Eddie to just go ahead and keep it, once his leg heals and is out of his cast? Well, that doesn’t mean anything either.

Nearly 2 months later he loses his own key to his apartment in the tsunami. He loses all his other keys and his phone too, but he and Christopher are alive and breathing so he doesn’t care, they’re just things. So really it’s a good thing Eddie has one, right?

(Epilogue: key he makes to replace the one Eddie gave back to him? Well.

That one might mean something.)


End file.
